ABSTRACT
The graphical user interface of the ubiquitous Photoshop image manipulation software
has naturalised image production as selection from a menu of pre-defined options.
Before the birth of Adobe Photoshop in 1990, creative arts production was a specialised
and predominantly time consuming craft. Today image production has been automated
through a system that has democratised previously specialised production skills. New
media theorists and practitioners have argued that the GUI has been designed as an
environment to be looked through, instead of being looked at, critically. As a dominant
postmodern cultural tool, Photoshop has consequently influenced the design of
subversive artworks such as HeritageGold and Autoshop, which provide a platform for
challenging the presumed universal appeal of the graphical user interface (GUI).
Although much research has been conducted around the design of the GUI, and the user
experience, there is a lack of critical writing around Photoshop as a cultural tool which
has naturalised its usability for a presumably universal target audience. As an African
user of technology that is based on graphical interfaces I use Photoshop to defamiliarise
this naturalised interpretation and usability of software.

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A defamiliarisation of the naturalised usability of the Photoshop graphical user interface